There are occasions where you might not have access to downloading the images from your current setup into the Magento or it is simply easier to reference the current file path on an external URL. The following snipet will add the ability for you to grab images from an external URL when importing products through a data feed. Rather then setting up the image column within the data feed with /image-name.jpg you can now use the full URL path http://www.domain.com/image-name.jpg as an example.

Download the following file – app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Convert/Adapter/Product.php and search for the following section of code:

A continual collection of WordPress template and code changes that I find useful when designing and developing WordPress blogs.

Body Class Reference

Especially when developing a number of custom elements on specific pages of your site you will want to be able to call that specific page or body class using the following update to the header.php file

In customizing WordPress navigation bards I have found it increasingly important to continue to add addition html into such WordPress functions as a simple page list. As as example I sought to add a <span> before and after each link in a standard page list.

Add content above and below Magento product listings using the Category Description available in 1.4, then updating where the static block displays on the category page when customizing the Display Settings to include both a static block and products.

The main focus of being able to customize the content in Magento category pages was to add the ability for me to be able to have an introductory paragraph of content, but also add additional content after the product listing. Thus I was able to add a foundation of custom content to main category pages without pushing the products further and further down the page. [Read more…]

I have noticed on a number of Magento websites that I have been designing, don’t include the pagination or pager links within the category listings. To remedy this oversight, simplyupdate catalog.xml to include call to pager.phtml file wiht the following code:

<block type=”page/html_pager” name=”product_list_toolbar_pager”/>

You will want to locate the reference to the Product List Toolbar and updated to match the following:

As apposed to creating / adding a block to one of your Magento theme files, working directly in one of the template or .phtml files is a better way to call a static block.

In continuing to develop and learn Magento I have made a number of discoveries that help clarify how to work within the setup of Magento. In most cases when looking to customize a given page, I was directed to making updates to the Layout .xml files.

However if I was looking to simply add a static block to a specific section of a template file, creating a static block to the appropriate .xml file would simply add the static block above or below a given area.

The following code for example, would add the contact_intro above my contact form, but in the setup of that page, I wanted the contact_intro to integrate into a specific section of the fonrm.phtml template. This was not possible by updating the contacts.xml file as follows:

Here are a coupe of quick references for removing sidebar callouts in either a template/layout .xml file or custom page Layout per page. I used the following to remove some unwanted blocks from the homepage sidebar by updating the XML Layout for the homepage under the Design tab, such as the cart which is unnecessary on a website homepage.